We moved from human development to industrialisation and to what drove world change. This week, we touched on something more specific which is how info communication technology changes the world.
Was pretty confused before the class about the readings. Coudln't really understand the scope of the ICT policy they kept mentioning and what's the definition of green ICT and green policy. Prof talked about how ICT changes the world communicates and how business models have to change and adapt with accordance to the social trends. A clearer and more specific example was brought in with the video on Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. Basically, the video never mention about Web 1.0 but I guess it is when the mass media first developed. When we first had the newspaper and eventually radio and television, communication was very one sided. We had them which might includes corporations and governments telling us about stuff they want us to know, watching shows they want us to watch. We simply had no alternatives and choices. Hence, communication was one sided and often degrades to mere propaganda in several countries.
Next came the internet and the emergence of P2P network which is peer to peer, that allows information to be no longer one sided. Information was no longer disseminated from a few sources but was shared between users. As technology advances, the P2P network grew stronger and stronger, communities banded together for common interest and websites like Youtube and Friendsters started gathering momentum. Eventually, mega websites with lots of users like MySpace and Facebook surfaced and these websites became a haven for information sharing. However, ultimately, you still have to search for the information you wish for or chanced upon it by chance.
Then came the idea of a Web 3.0 where websites and providers records your search, your video viewed and all other kind of history and are able to recommend and introduce websites, videos, photos, musics and all other internet resources that suits your liking. So mass media and information communication had evolved from a one sided dissemination of information to a network of users who shared information to an interactive web that can predict your preference through past activities and recommend activities and many other resources.
For example, facebook had came up with a very strong facial recognition programme that able to match facial features of a photograph to the name tagged. This had allowed an American to find his stepbrother who shared a common father to find each other in a sea of of humans. This happened because both of them uploaded a photo of their father which the system recognises, matched them together and thus recommend each other as friends suggestion.
Prof also discussed about the future of cloud computing which unfortunately stole the limelight from one of the presenters.
Ultimately, I felt that cloud computing outsources the need of big companies to have their own individual database to an external, more cost efficient company. It would be especially beneficial to big corporations who have multiple HQ spread out over the continents to have a central database that could be accessed from anywhere in the globe. Companies no longer have to be stuck with having an internal intranet set up while the internet already existed. This will solve many inherent problems and costs that intranet was infested with. Small companies without the capacity to create the own data centers can also have a common database to do document editing and data sharing. Ultimately, security of information will be an issue but I trust the companies, being specialised, will be able to hire the best of personnel and talents to create a security strong enough against any odds. The benefits of cloud computing will definitely break down many problems mega scale institutions like the SAF faced.
One example of cloud computing will definitely be google doc where multiple users are able to edit information together. This breaks down the barriers of a need to email every related personnel whenever a small changes to the document was made and the mess created out of it. The excel version online provided by msn is an example of online software that does not requires any software downloading or installing. However, the adoption of cloud computing will depends on how well we improve our internet connectivity. If the entire nation is a wireless hub, no one would hesitate or protest against cloud computing. Key issues is 24/7 accessibility.
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